Bruceantin, a potent anti-leukemic quassinoid, is isolated from the Ethiopian Brucea antidysenterica. Isolation from this source is difficult and the provision of alternate sources of this material would be desirable.
The more readily available Brucea javanica is the source of quassinoid glycosides, bruceoside-A and -B. These materials differ from bruceantin in the presence of a glycoside moiety at the 2- or 3- positions and in a different ester moiety at the 15- position. The conversion of these glycosides to bruceantin would therefore be of interest.